Credit: The Associated Press

A man begging on the street as people walk past him in Pamplona, northern Spain on Friday, Jan. 3, 2014. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

LONDON — The pressure on the European Central Bank to ease monetary policy further in coming months ratcheted up Tuesday after figures showed underlying inflation in the eurozone fell to a record low.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said inflation across the 17 EU countries that used the euro in December fell to 0.8 percent, as expected, from 0.9 percent the month before. The ECB is tasked with setting monetary policy to keep price inflation just below 2 percent.